BANKSY EXHIBITIONS AND PRANKS // GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT LONDON, 2019

  • Poster for Banksy's Gross Domestic Product, London October 2019
    Gross Domestic Product, 2019
    Poster for Banksy, Gross Domestic Product, Church Street, Croydon, London, 1–15 October 2019.
    © Banksy. Reproduced for educational purposes only.
    In October 2019, Banksy launched Gross Domestic Product in Croydon, South London, a satirical “homeware store” created to combat the unauthorised commercial use of his name. The project arose after a greeting card company attempted to trademark the Banksy brand, prompting the artist to design and sell his own line of domestic products in order to establish legal ownership. As always, Banksy transformed a legal dispute into an act of artistic protest, turning bureaucracy into spectacle. The storefront featured riot gear recast as household goods, unsettling children’s toys, and other biting commentaries on consumerism and branding.
     
    Banksy was transparent about his motivations, openly acknowledging that every item had been conceived to meet trademark requirements under EU law. “I had the legal sheet pinned up in the studio like a muse,” he explained, underscoring how the work merged satire with necessity. The result was both a political statement and a legal safeguard, positioning Gross Domestic Product as one of Banksy’s most unconventional exhibitions. Through it, he highlighted issues of authorship, ownership, and commodification, while cleverly reclaiming control over his identity.
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  • “I had the legal sheet pinned up in the studio like a muse.”

    – Banksy

    Gross Domestic Product was born not from artistic whim but from a courtroom challenge. In 2019, a greeting card company attempted to legally trademark the Banksy name, forcing the artist into a position where he had to prove “genuine commercial use” of his brand under EU law. Instead of fighting through lawyers alone, Banksy responded with a public intervention: a fully staged shopfront in Croydon that operated more as an artwork than a retail outlet.
     
    The storefront became an unconventional legal strategy. By filling the windows with riot gear reworked into furniture, stab-proof baby vests, and unsettling children’s toys, Banksy met the letter of trademark law while exposing its absurdity. Visitors couldn’t buy anything on site; instead, products were sold later through a lottery system, underscoring how the exhibition was never about consumption but about reclaiming ownership of his name.
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